An Artist's Journal:Paintings by Felicia Marshall

  11x14 in acrylic on hardboard This painting is part of my ongoing Little Miss series.  Each piece in this collection has been a joy to create, and this particular painting was no exception. As I worked on this piece, I found myself tempted to ground the figure with a shadow in the background to anchor her. However, as the painting evolved, I came to appreciate the light and airy quality that emerged. The result is a sense of weightlessness and whimsy that I absolutely love. Sometimes, the things we resist the most grow into unexpected favorites. My relationship with the color orange is a perfect example of that transformation.   For twenty years, I worked at a school where orange was the school’s spirit color. I wore it often, but never quite embraced it, at least at first. I used to joke that I felt like a giant pumpkin in my orange spirit shirt and jacket. I even recall a moment at the movies when an usher waved me back in without a ticket, saying he remembered...

8" x 10" acrylic on hardboard This was a fun painting.  It is lite hearted and almost funny.  I was pleased with how it turned out.  I guess the second time's a charm when it comes to painting the pattern in the glasses.  I found it far less frustrating this time around.  This time the process was much easier, but I don't think I want to tackle it again. Looking at this painting in my post reminds me of owl eyes.  I  guess if I wanted to I could have named it "What a Hoot". SOLD

5"x7" acrylic on hardboard While attempting to organize my life.  I came across this image of my sister.  It was a long forgotten photo that I took of her when we were both much younger and thinner.  She seems so serious which shouldn't surprise me because it's how I often describe her to others, after I mention how much we resemble one another.  She's not just any woman, shes' my best friend and always has been.  I guess I could have titled this one a couple of things like...study of a younger woman, or best friend, or sister, but when I look at it I think of how young we were, just about to make the monumental decisions that would shape our lives into the woman we are today. 

6”x 6” acrylic on masonite My grandmother was a seamstress and created the blanket in this painting. As long as I can remember she had a box full of scrape material that she’d collected from different projects. All of those scrapes eventually found their way into her quilts. When it became more difficult for her to sew, she made a quilt for each of her children and most of her grandchildren and retired all of her sewing materials. My family has a long tradition of photographing one another while napping. This is usually followed up by placing the unflattering image on our parent’s refrigerator door. What can I say, we’ve shared a lot of laughs as we’d make our inevitable trip to the fridge. This is clearly one of the more flattering napping images.